Book reviews

Disputed Histories: Imagining New Zealand's Pasts edited by Tony Ballantyne and Brian Moloughney. University of Otago Press, Dunedin. 2006. 283 p. NZ$49.95 (paperback). ISBN 1877276161.

Historical Frictions: Maori Claims and Reinvented Histories by Michael Belgrave. Auckland University Press, Auckland. 2005. 388 p. NZ$49.95 (paperback). ISBN 1869403207.

New Zealand Identities: Departures and Destinations edited by James H Liu, Tim McCreanor, Tracey McIntosh, and Teresia Teaiwa. Victoria University Press, Wellington. 2005. 304 p. NZ$39.95 (paperback). ISBN 0864735170.

Revolution: The 1913 Great Strike in New Zealand, edited by Melanie Nolan. Canterbury University Press, Christchurch. 2006. 320 p. NZ$34.95 (paperback). ISBN 1877257400.

Sexuality Down Under: Social And Historical Perspectives edited by Allison Kirk‐man and Pat Moloney. University of Otago Press, Dunedin. 2006. 301 p. NZ$39.95 (paperback). ISBN 1877372102.

Geographies of Globalization by Warwick E. Murray. Routledge, London and New York. 2006. 392 p. NZ$69.95 (paperback). ISBN 0415317991.     

Sexual Harassment in Public Places: Experiences of Canadian Women*

Des chercheurs ont étudié les cas de harcèlement sexuel en milieu de travail et dans les universités. En collaboration avec des experts judiciaires, ils ont conceptualisé le harcelement sexuel et en ont fait une question de droits de la personne. Notre recherche, fondée sur un sondage effectue en 1992 auprès de 1 990 femmes canadiennes, réVéle que le harcèlement sexuel se produit aussi dans les lieux publics. Nous présentons des données inédites sur le sujet en exa-minant le type, la fréquence et la gravité du harcèlement, les carac-téristiques des femmes le plus susceptibles d'être harcetées, les implications pouvant servir à bâtir une théone sur le harcèlement dans les lieux publics, les réactions des femmes a l'égard du harcèlement ainsi que ses conséquences sur les plans émotionnel et psychologique. Researchers have expended much effort studying sexual harassment in the workplace and universities. Together with legal experts, they have conceptualized sexual harassment as a human-rights issue: a form of sexual discrimination that typically occurs in relationships of unequal power. Our research, based on a 1992 survey o{ 1,990 Canadian women, suggests sexual harassment is also prevalent in public places such as streets, transit systems and malls. We supply rare data about sexual harassment in public places by examining the types, frequency, and severity of harassment; the characteristics of women most likely to be harassed; the theoretical implications of public harassment; women's responses to harassment; and its emotional and psychological effects.     

Finding identity without discrimination: the plight of Arab American adolescents

This study investigated the relationship between self-reported discrimination and ethnic identity among 61 Arab American adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 years. Participants completed the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) to obtain an assessment of their ethnic identities. Additionally, the lead author developed a questionnaire asking participants to self-report if either they or another Arab student they knew had been ‘treated badly or differently because of their ethnicity’. Consistent with the rejection-identification model, respondents who had reported experiencing discrimination, knowing of others who had experienced discrimination, or both had higher ethnic identity scores than those who had not, although the only significant difference was found between the group that experienced both types of discrimination and the non-discrimination group. Implications of these results are discussed as well as directions for future research.     

Techniques of child discipline and abuse by parents

Cet article examine l'étiologie de l'agression parentale envers les enfants, basée sur un échantillonnage aléatoire de families Torontoises. Plusieurs questions qui demeuraient sans réponses dans l'étude de l'abus des enfants sont clarifiées par l'analyse d'un échantillonnage aléatoire et par une perspective plus large des déterminants de la discipline des enfants. Ces questions sont tirées de trois théories sociologiques principales souvent citées dans la litérature sur l'abus des enfants - l'argument sur le cycle de la violence, la théorie sociale-situationnelle, et le modèle culturel. Les analyses factorielles et de régressions multiples démontrent qu'il existe des styles distincts de discipline; que différents groupes de variables causatives opèrent dans chaque style de discipline; et que différents facteurs influencent le style de discipline des mères et des pères. Les facteurs ayant rapport à la socialisation infantile des parents sont des causes déterminates particulièrement importantes à leurs choix de méthodes proactives d'instruction de discipline des enfants, tandis que les facteurs ayant rapport à la distribution des pouvoirs dans la famille, et dans la societe en generate, sont les causes les plus importantes de la selection de methodes de discipline reactives et violentes. This paper examines the etiology of parents' aggression towards their children in a random sample of Toronto families. Several outstanding issues in the study of child abuse are clarified by analysing a random sample and by viewing the problem in the larger context of the determinants of child discipline. These issues are derived from three main sociological theories of child abuse frequently cited in the literature - the cycle of violence argument, social situational theory and the cultural model. Factor and multiple regression analyses demonstrate that distinct styles of discipline exist; different subsets of causal variables operate for each discipline style; and mothers' and fathers' discipline styles are affected by different factors. Factors related to parents' childhood socialization are particularly important determinants of whether they adopt a proactive, teaching style of child discipline, while factors related to the distribution of power in the family and in society at large are the most important causes of whether parents adopt a reactive, violent discipline style.     

Hypothesis Testing in Multivariate Linear Models with Randomly Missing Data

Tests for mean equality proposed by Weerahandi (1995) and Chen and Chen (1998), tests that do not require equality of population variances, were examined when data were not only heterogeneous but, as well, nonnormal in unbalanced completely randomized designs. Furthermore, these tests were compared to a test examined by Lix and Keselman (1998), a test that uses a heteroscedastic statistic (i.e., Welch, 1951) with robust estimators (20% trimmed means and Winsorized variances). Our findings confirmed previously published data that the tests are indeed robust to variance heterogeneity when the data are obtained from normal populations. However, the Weerahandi (1995) and Chen and Chen (1998) tests were not found to be robust when data were obtained from nonnormal populations. Indeed, rates of Type I error were typically in excess of 10% and, at times, exceeded 50%. On the other hand, the statistic presented by Lix and Keselman (1998) was generally robust to variance heterogeneity and nonnormality.     

The Internet: An Essential Tool for College Health Networking

Abstract

With the advent of the Internet, college health professionals have available to them a new setting in which to network. The Internet provides opportunities for immediate communication with a large and diverse community of colleagues. Through both the Student Health Service (SHS) Discussion Group and numerous health-related databases, the Internet serves as a powerful research tool for program development and improvement. Answers to queries about practice options, solutions for local problems, and support of innovative policies can be received almost instantaneously from college health professionals from across the United States and Canada. In this article, the authors summarize the history and current use of the SHS Discussion Group, provide a brief overview of Internet basics, and identify more advanced uses of the Internet by college health professionals.     

Dis-integrated policy: welfare-to-work participants' experiences of integrating paid work and unpaid family work

Using a critical feminist theoretical lens, we followed 17 families for one year – as they attempted to make the transition from welfare to work – eliciting narrative accounts of their day-to-day lives. We used an institutional–ethnographic methodology to analyse the data. Our study shows that the juncture at which unpaid caring work and paid employment meet may be more difficult to negotiate for low-income lone-parent families than for coupled, middle-class employed families. Findings reveal that the unpaid work that happened on the edges of a paid work day, what we refer to as ‘the work outside the work’, took considerable time and energy for participants, making it difficult for them to procure and/or sustain employment. This was due to a number of factors including their limited access to economic and non-economic resources, and the complex nature of their lives, including struggles with day-to-day functioning and childcare arrangements. These challenges, combined with the realities of the low-income labour market made it difficult, if not impossible, for most participants to effectively integrate work and family. These findings suggest that the dis-integrated nature of welfare-to-work policies, which overlooks the actualities of low-income parents’ lives, limits families’ ability to become self-sufficient.     

Being central to decision making means I am still here!: The essence of decision making for people with dementia

The ability to make choices and decisions, and to have those decisions upheld, is central to self-determination. For people living with a diagnosis of dementia, however, it can be difficult to remain involved in decision making. While many studies show that people with mild or moderate dementia have the ability to participate in decision making, there are also indications that the attitudes of those around them, including health professionals and family carers, can sometimes be a barrier, and there is generally little understanding about the nature of decision making for this population. This small pilot study draws on van Manen's approach to phenomenology to explore the essence of decision making for people living with dementia. The findings highlight the importance of remaining central to decision making, and the key role that subtle support from carers plays in enabling this.     

Patterns of Racial Socialization and Psychological Adjustment: Can Parental Communications About Race Reduce the Impact of Racial Discrimination?

This study uses two waves of data to examine the relations among racial discrimination experiences, patterns of racial socialization practices, and psychological adjustment in a sample of 361 African American adolescents. Using latent class analyses, we identified four patterns of child‐reported racial socialization experiences: Moderate Positive, High Positive, Low Frequency, and Moderate Negative. Experiencing racial discrimination was associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms, more perceived stress, and lower levels of well‐being. On average, adolescents who experienced High Positive patterns of racial socialization reported the most positive psychological adjustment outcomes, while adolescents in the Low Frequency and Moderate Negative clusters reported the least favorable outcomes. Results suggest that High Positive racial socialization buffers the negative effects of racial discrimination on adolescents' perceived stress and problem behaviors. Together, the findings suggest that various patterns of racial socialization practices serve as risk, compensatory, and protective factors in African American adolescent psychological adjustment.     

Comments on estimators based on error in the predicted distribution function

In estimation of percentiles in the exponential distribution, the distribution function evaluated at the estimated percentile is often evaluated for purposes of warranty considerations. Optimal estimators are discussed and compared on their error in the predicted distribution function. Inconsistency is shown to exist between measures of closeness and measures of risk in the predicted distribution function. An optimal estimator based on absolute loss in the predicted distribution function is obtained and shown to be superior in measures of closeness to the optimal estimator, which minimizes squared error loss in the predicted distribution function.